Wichita eagle., 1887-07-14
BEECHER'S JEWELS.
HIS WONDERFUL AND VARIED COL
LECTION OF PRECIOUS STONES.

Carrying Them Loose in His Pockets.
Mr.. Beecher's Fine Library.
It was to learn something in relation to Mr.
Beecher's collections that I spent an evening
with Maj w. G.. Beecher at bis house on
Columbia Heights. Maj. Beecher is the son
into whose hands the whole matter Of dispos-
ing of his fathers effects has been placed.
u suppose" said the major, taking as he
spoke key ring on which hung five or six
finger rings from his pocket, 3you would like
to hear first about fathers gems. Here are
number Of them set in rings, which be used to
carry in this way in his pocket. You will
notice that they, or most Of them, are some
what marked and scratched from constant
rubbing" and Maj. Beecher handed them to
me.
"You will see," he continued, that among
them there is yellow diamond, an OPAL a
hyacinth, sapphires and number of Indian
garnets and topazes. The diamond, of
course, is the most valuable Of the lot, as it Is
q remarkably large and fine specimen Father
cared nothing for white diamonds. Color
was everything to him. Color and music had
the same effect upon his nerves that opiates
would have upon those Of other men This
particular diamond was brought to him by
New York jeweler from Paris, and he was
very fond of it. Hyacinths were among his
favorite gems, and that one which you have
in your hand was probably the most valuable
one he owned. Its color, a rich cherry red,
is rare. Of the others, the sapphires and
topazes, and especially that large oval topaz,
which, as you see, is nearly the color Of n.y.
cinth, appealed most strongly to his sense of
color. Perhaps he had more Indian garnets
than any other stone. One in particular,
which is not among those in your hand,
looked so much like ruby that he often de-
ceived jewelers. Among his unset gems he
had a number Of very beautiful opals and
amethysts and a quantity of small topazes,
tourmalines and garnets, many of them being
of little or no market value.
"The intrinsic value of stone was nothing
to him, but its form and beauty Of color
everything. He had no liking for stones that
had been cut for intaglios and canoes: such
were ruined in his eyes. Another stone whose
color pleased him intensely was the peridot.
They are of soft green shade He had four
Of these. The gems l have mentioned are
about all that we have found among his
effects, but they do not begin to give an idea
of the number he has had in his possession.
He was in the habit of giving away to his
friends any stone which they happened to ex-
press a strong admiration for. Wherever hs
went he was well known to the jewelers., and
they permitted him to take whatever suited
his fancy. Those he wanted he kept, and the
others he returned The jewelers. were will
ing that he should do this, not only on &C.
count of their friendship for him, but be-
cause in that way they were able to dispose of
a great many jewels which were purchased
by his friends. He was as well known in the
jewelry stores of San Francisco and Boston
as in those of New York, and whenever Q
jeweler anywhere in the country came into
the possession of a stone which was notable
for its color and form he was pretty apt to
send it to father. He was an excellent Judge
of the gems that he was fond of, and was
often commissioned by friends to select for
them"
as it true that he used to carry quantities
of gems loose in his vest pocket!"
"Not exactly, though have known him to
have three or four packages of stones about
his person at time. He was more apt to
keep them in the compartments of bis pocket
book. don't think, outside Of the hyacinth
diamond and opal, which he always carried,
that he ever at any one time had more than
81, 900 or $1,000 worth of gems in his posses
sion. He was apparently very careless Of
them, but l don't know that he ever lost any.
Often while walking on the street with
friend he would open package of gems and
spread them out in the palm of his hand
II remember five or six years ago that
jeweler in Harlem sent him two opals One
was cut gem, which the jeweler called The
"Setting Sum-" and was valued at $780, The
other was rough in the matrix, and was
nearly as large as mans hand. He kept
them for several months, and then one day
handed them, wrapped up in piece of
paper, to me. Here, WILL be said, 4 shan't
keep these: you take them back l didn't
like the idea at all of travelling around with
$1,000 worth of gems in my pocket, and 1
was mighty glad when l reached Harlem In
safety, can tell you. Father did not wear
jewels often. He had piece of aqua marine,
which, by the way, has disappeared, which
he sometimes used to wear in the pulpit of
Plymouth church, and splendid opal which
he would wear at times when out of the city
But he was averse to making display of his
jewels"
Il have always understood, Mr. Beecher,
that your father had very fine and complete
library
HE had There are about 10000 volumes
in it, and for scope and completeness it is, |
think, among the finest of the worlds private
libraries Father did not care for books
simply because they We're rare. His was q
working library, and in it were books that
touched upon almost every topic within the
range of thought. Every book that he could
lay his hands upon which threw any new light
upon a subject he bought. His theological
library is naturally the most complete. Next
to this, his philosophical library is the most
extensive He had the works of all the Eng
lish scientists and an especially complete col
lection of all books on evolution, not only
those of Darwin, but also those on the other
side. Spencer and Tyndall were among his
favorite authors and he had their works en-
tire. In the library are 100 folio volumes Of
engravings, which include copies of all the
celebrated paintings of Dresden, Louvre and
other continental galleries Then he had a
set of magnificent Shakespearean illustra-
tons, some 200 in number
although, as | have said, father did not
care especially for merely rare books, still he
had many which are extremely rare and val
liable. Among the most notable Of these are
'Gould's Humming Birds, consisting of five
large beautifully illustrated volumes contain
ing description of all species of humming
birds known up to that time, and also colored
illustrations of almost all of the orchids This
set was one OF four that was subscribed for
in this country, and father was the only
private citizen VINO subscribed here. The
Others were taken by the Smithsonian insti-
tuition, Yale college, and another institution
the name of which | cannot recollect. Besides |
this set he has Audubon's Birds of America
Morris British Birds and Cuvier's |
Natural History library of fifty to seventy
volumes, beside many others on trees. plants,
ferns and flowers. His medical library was
fair, and his collection of the British and
American noyeliSts and poets nearly COM